Rob McKenna won’t choose ‘lesser of two evils’
Aug 13, 2015, 11:03 AM | Updated: 1:44 pm
KIRO Radio political analyst, Rob McKenna thinks there are plenty of decent Republican candidates, but if he has to vote between Trump and Hillary, he just won't.
If it comes down to Clinton vs. Trump, former state Attorney General Rob McKenna just won’t vote.
“None of the above. I wouldn’t cast a vote. I wouldn’t vote in the race,” KIRO Radio’s Rob McKenna told KIRO Radio’s Dave Ross. “I couldn’t vote for Trump because I think he’s incredibly cynical and he’s bad for the American system of government. He’s a demagogue if there ever was one. And I don’t agree with Hillary’s policies.”
“So I just wouldn’t vote. I’ve never abstained before in my voting life, but that would be the only logical choice,” he said. “I just couldn’t choose the lesser of two evils.”
There’s still a long way to go until anyone will have to face such a choice. McKenna said that despite Trump’s popularity at the moment, it’s reflective of a small number of voters, and most Americans can’t relate to that crowd. McKenna, for example considers himself a moderate Republican.
“I always say center-right,” he said. “Considering how polarized both political parties have become on the left and the right, the center is either bigger or really small. I think that more and more politicians are more centrist because the extremists have really moved the boundaries out.”
“There’s always a portion of the electorate that is frustrated with the system, with the status quo with the major political parties,” McKenna said. “It’s important to keep this in perspective; this is 20 percent of people surveyed in Republican primaries. That’s a really small slice of the electorate. The largest groups of people in America consider themselves independent and Democrats outnumber Republicans, nationally speaking.”
McKenna said there is still hope that one of the many qualified Republican hopefuls will give him, and voters, a better choice.
“It’s an embarrassment of riches in terms of candidates who are experienced who really could do the job. That ranges from Carly Fiorina, to Jeb Bush, to Scott Walker, and John Kasich did very well in the last debate,” McKenna said. “I’m biding my time, not feeling like I have to choose one of these excellent candidates over the other at this point.”
In the meantime, Trump continues to claim headlines in his pursuit of office. Which is fine, according to McKenna.
“The media is just meeting the demand of consumers. Trump is just the master of knowing how to exploit it,” he said, calling Trump an “opportunist.”
“I think he comes from a tradition that has been in our country for a long time — of spoilers. People who would like to be the spoilers and give themselves leverage by putting themselves in that position,” McKenna said. “Ya know, [for example] Ross Perot cost George H.W. Bush reelection of the presidency in 1992. John Anderson may have cost Jimmy Carter his reelection in 1980 … The most famous example is Teddy Roosevelt forming the Bull Moose Party and costing Taft an election, and Woodrow Wilson was elected.”
Could Trump merely be the next Perot or Anderson? It may be too soon to tell, but McKenna notes that the long, arduous journey ahead for the many campaigns will actually be good for whomever ends up in the White House. It will prepare them for the rigors of the presidency.
